The firms participating in this competition showcased their products and services, all of which utilize blockchain technology to solve existing problems or create new experiences and business opportunities not possible without the blockchain.

Seventeen businesses competed, each giving 20-minute presentations to industry leaders and investors, including the relatively new Intellisys Capital.

Here is a list of the winners in each of the competition’s categories:

These winners will have their presentations shared among members of the BitAngels investment group, giving the startups a chance to secure new funding.

The other finalists received honorary plaques, and had the chance to network with investors attending the conference.

CoinAgenda founder Michael Terpin expressed his satisfaction with CoinAgenda’s turnout and the results from the startup competition.

“Once again, the BitAngels network allowed us to field an extraordinary group of presenters, from Australia to Europe, and our judges were impressed by the quality of not only the winners, but the entire group of presenters,” Terpin told Bitcoinist.

“As CoinAgenda expands globally, we look forward to connecting even more exciting blockchain startups with a growing wave of investors seeking out these opportunities.”

CoinAgenda has scheduled a one-day summit in Las Vegas on January 4, 2017, a day before the opening of the highly-popular CES. As part of the summit, Terpin will speak at the CES Blockchain Breakfast as part of the conference’s Digital Money Forum.

Did you attend CoinAgenda? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.

The bitcoin price has exploded in recent weeks, breaking $700 USD for the second time in 2016. Many analysts attribute this bullish activity to the economic slowdown occurring in China, along with the devaluation of the renminbi (RMB), which reportedly leads Chinese investors to buy bitcoin as a safe-haven asset.

Meanwhile, the economic struggles in China have sent bitcoin markets into a bullish frenzy, propelling the currency’s price skyward.

As such, a large portion of bitcoin’s purchasing volume comes from China, with both cryptocurrency enthusiasts and profit-driven investors buying in.

In fact, one bitcoin analyst credits China’s massive capital outflows for the cryptocurrency’s recent rise to $700 USD. Citing the country’s estimated $573.2 billion in capital flow during 2016, the analyst predicted that enough Chinese money would flow into bitcoin to push its price to $800.

The Rise of OTC Markets

Bitcoin exchanges are an area of focus when considering Chinese bitcoin trading. However, over the counter (OTC) markets off an equally large — if not bigger — source of trading from all over the world, China included.

For the most part, OTC trading has been reserved for people purchasing abnormally large amounts of bitcoin. The bitcoin community refers to these traders as “whales.”

However, one Chinese bitcoin company wants to bring OTC trading to the masses through its new mobile service.

BitKan, a popular Android and iOS application that provides news and market data for bitcoin, has recently added an OTC market as part of a large update to its product.

Similar to popular peer-to-peer exchange LocalBitcoins, the BitKan OTC market displays traders in the user’s area and their buy and sell quotes. Users can choose the person they want to trade with, contact them through the app, and arrange a trade.

In order to utilize the OTC utility, BitKan users have to create an in-app web wallet, as well as bind their phone numbers to their app accounts in order to execute purchases via SMS.

The company has recently brought this service to web-based users as well, launching a browser version of the OTC function on its official website.

While the team at BitKan does not condone illegal asset liquidation, or other actions that violate Chinese capital controls, it still claims to respect user privacy. As such, any OTC trades on the app under 5 BTC do not require Know Your Customer Verification.

Getting off to an enthusiastic start, the company has visited bitcoin and blockchain conferences across the world, recently attending the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference in Kiev in September. The team also said it plans to go the next conference in Moscow.

Additionally, today, the team will be at the laBITconf in Argentina, the largest bitcoin conference in Latin America. BitKan is a major sponsor of this event, and the company’s chief operations officer will deliver a speech there on the Chinese Bitcoin and blockchain market.

With services like BitKan and LocalBitcoins gaining in popularity among average traders, and a continuing threat of global recession, it is plausible that OTC bitcoin trading will continue to grow, simultaneously driving the bitcoin price higher.

Do you use OTC markets to trade bitcoin? Let us know in the comments below.

ZCASH

“There is one known bug, which causes private transactions (those in which all of the inputs and outputs are shielded addresses) not to get mined. We’re going to release v1.0.1 shortly to fix it.”

Funds sent to “t” addresses can be processed, while “z” addresses are out of the picture. While “z” addresses are completely anonymous, “t” addresses present a level of transparency, which has angered some users. Zcash’s biggest claim to fame has been that it is a “completely anonymous” currency, and investors are waiting for the big fix to occur sometime soon.

MINTCOIN

Mintcoin is an altcoin that claims to use less power. Offering “lightning-fast” transaction speed, a representative released the following statement:

“Mint’s code base continues to mature and develop as a guide for what works in the consensus-driven POS industry… Mint transactions are processed quickly and painlessly with 30 second block times. Our community and brand are friendly and trusted. Mintcoin is a truly open source, trusted coin for the people, by the people.”

Why then, is the coin stirring controversy? Apparently, Mint’s pre-min of 700 million coins didn’t go exactly as planned. According to representatives, payments and pre-mine address funds were drained earlier than expected, and developers involved in the project have decided not to stick around. The coin promises security, and many are wondering about Mint’s ability to keep up granted there doesn’t seem to be a solid team offering support.

BIPCOIN

A new currency called BipCoin has made its official debut. Using the same technology as Monero, the cryptocurrency has released a new GUI wallet for both Linux and Windows.

What makes the coin unique? The fact that it is inaccessible to government officials. BipCoin can be used by anyone granted they’re not a government or government agent, bringing the notion of independence to a whole new level.

BipCoin developer Michael Dean says that the no-government stance is the currency’s way of giving users an extra layer of privacy:

“Governments worldwide push on people and want to be up in everyone’s butt-crack… Even non-anarchists are saying ENOUGH, and for the first time in history, high-level encryption in EVERYTHING is available to everyone, not just some super-tech smart geeks.”

Bitcoin’s recent bull run ended with a thud on 3rd November, reaching above $740 before crashing to around $685 in just a few hours. Was a rumor of further Chinese restrictions on Bitcoin exchanges to blame? And if so, how accurate is the news?

Chinese Rumors Start to Spread… Again

Dramatic financial news site ZeroHedgereported on 3rd November that Chinese regulators “are considering policies including restricting domestic bitcoin exchanges from moving the cryptocurrency to platforms outside the nation and imposing quotas on the amount of bitcoins that can be sent abroad.”

While speculators have often wondered about Bitcoin’s effect on capital flight from China, others doubt it has any impact at all. BTC price movements in the past have appeared to correlate with Chinese monetary policy announcements.

ZeroHedge cited “Bloomberg sources” as the story’s origin, though provided no link. On Reddit, readers were skeptical given recent positive signs such as last weekend’s First World Blockchain Conference in Changsha. Several high-level political officials attended the conference, which was organized in part by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

By press time, the BTC price had rebounded substantially back to $702, though not back to its previous highs.

Has Anyone Else Heard the News?

Chinese Bitcoin news and information portal BitKan said the Bloomberg news was a hot topic in its office this morning. However although other media outlets were repeating the story, no-one has been able to find where the original report came from.

Local Chinese news reported the information as such (translated):

“According to Bloomberg News, PBOC and other Supervision department are analyzing and planning to launch measures, to restrain exchanging CNY to USD via Bitcoin transactions. Measures which are in consideration may include restraining Chinese exchange platforms transferring Bitcoin to overseas exchange platforms, or setting limits on amounts of bitcoin removed to overseas exchange platforms.”

BitKan reported no-one in the Chinese Bitcoin industry had heard any information from the government directly. However, since Chinese policy rumors first started to impact Bitcoin in 2013, the government has rarely communicated with companies directly.

However founder Edward Liu suggested the news may not be bad, even if true. Speaking to Bitcoinist, he said:

“if the news is true, it shows that the Bitcoin industry has got growth in China. Also, being regulated is a necessary stage for every growth industry. If the Chinese goverment lauches any regulation about the Bitcoin industry, BitKan will make efforts in cooperation.”

Other China-based industry representatives also said they hadn’t heard any such news.

Virgilio Lizardo Jr. of Bitcoin multi-services firm Bitbank, which is involved in both exchange and large-scale mining operations, said: “Total nonsense, China is taking a more positive approach to Bitcoin and blockchain technology. The conference is proof positive of that.”

China’s Bitcoin ambassador Willson Lee, who just assisted in organizing the recent blockchain-themed conference for high-level Chinese party officials, said he’d not heard anything about a policy change.

Let’s Wait and See

So was the original report real? Or are outlets simply re-reporting a rumor, with the inevitable price movements?

At press time, the industry is still waiting for confirmation from sources other than Bloomberg. While the news does not appear anywhere on Bloomberg’s news site, the service provides an instant news feed to terminal subscribers which often does not appear elsewhere.

Bitcoinist will keep an eye on this developing story and report updates as they become available.

Did you make or lose any money on the previous 12 hours’ volatility? How much influence do Chinese traders have on current bitcoin value? Let’s hear your thoughts.

The upcoming free-to-play MOBA title Beyond the Voidstarted a month-long ICO on OpenLedger earlier this week on November 1. During the fundraiser, the game’s developers will sell Nexium (NxC) tokens to jump-start the title’s in-game economy.

Beyond the Void to Create a Working Blockchain Economy

According to developers, Beyond the Void is the first-ever competitive MOBA to use a smart contract-backed token economy powered by the Ethereum blockchain blockchain.

The developers also claim the title of being the first MOBA title to hold an ICO, making the announcement at the Money 20/20 and CoinAgenda conferences last week in Las vegas.

Furthermore, the Beyond the Void-OpenLedger collaboration received two articles from Forbes, with contributor Roger Aitken saying the game “could be poised to storm the gaming industry backed by an [ICO] and Ethereum blockchain tokens.”

Echoing this sentiment, OpenLedger CEO Ronny Boesing said in a press release, “Beyond the Void shows the application of blockchain technology to mainstream industries, By accelerating their ICO crowdfunding, we will accelerate the spread of ICO culture and practices as well.”

The game’s NxC-powered economy consists of items that can be bought, sold and traded by players at will, creating what developers call a “player-owned” market, determined by supply and demand.

Beyond the in-game economy, developersclaim to provide a highly competitive gameplay experience that will draw in eSports enthusiasts from the mainstream gaming industry.

“The game is designed to be competitive and playable in E-sport tournaments,” said Beyond the Void founder and graphic artist, Maxence Burgel.

“We believe players should pay because they like the game and they have fun playing it,” Burgel continued, “We don’t want people to have to pay in order to enjoy the game.”

Nexium Now on Sale at OpenLedger

Interested investors have three different ways to participate in the ICO, OpenLedger said, providing press with the following descriptions of the available investment options:

Sponsor the gamer token NxC with an extra bonus on top – Those opting for this option can do so by directly visiting the ICO page on Beyond the Void website and following the instructions. Investors choosing this method are eligible for an addition 5% bonus, credited along with the purchased tokens to their respective ETH wallets up on the end of ICO. ETH is the accepted form of payment and a limited amount of 5 million BCY will be reserved for Bitcrystals holders.

Subscribe to a token and trade it the same day – This option can be availed only on CCEDK ICO platform by choosing to subscribe to ICO prelaunch option. Investors will be ordering NxC asset backed by OpenLedger (OPEN.NxC) and they can trade the tokens on OpenLedger until the time of launch at an extra 4% premium on the going rate. Accepted form of payment includes BTC, BTS, ETH, SBD and more, including fiat options.

Invest in the Nexium token indirectly by buying the ICOO digital token – This option allows investors to buy into all token crowdsales as well as any tokens received as payment for OpenLedger services in connection with token crowdsale. ICOO digital tokens can be bought directly from BTC Market and BTS Market.

Following the ICO’s conclusion on November 30, Beyond the Void developers have planned a three-phase game release, posting a list of scheduled development milestones to the game’s official crowdfunding webpage.

This ICO is one of three crowdsales being hosted by OpenLedger this month. According to Boesing, these fundraisers will gain the attention of institutional investors, making the ICO a more respected method of startup funding.

What do you think about Beyond the Void? Let us know in the comments below.

Incent Loyalty, an Australian-based company, wants to tap into the potential of loyalty rewards points through creating a tradable, “open-value” token called Incent, which customers use to gain and trade loyalty points near-instantly and worldwide. While low-cost blockchain technology helps to solidify storage, Incent Loyalty’s consumer facing applications can be personalized to align with the branding of merchant partners.

Incent: Tokenizing Loyalty Rewards

To provide an easier customer experience, loyalty values will additionally still be displayed in terms of that particular region’s local currency. Through a partnership with Australian small and medium sized business group Smea, Incent already has access to over 30,000 merchants and has seen interest growing rapidly. With an ICO for Incent ongoing, the company has a growing resource pool to build upon its vision.

Through connecting blockchain to commerce, Incent will encourage use of cryptocurrency among merchants without succumbing to the difficulties of the at times costly and over-crowded Bitcoin blockchain.

Rob Wilson, CEO and co-founder of BitScan and Incent Loyalty, said that he first had the idea for the solution when he saw a plethora of plastic loyalty cards in a purse. Clearly, there was opportunity to rid of the inefficiencies of traditional loyalty programs and implement blockchain technology to unleash a new form of tradable value.

Incent Loyalty has been doing a vast majority of its business digitally, with users most commonly visiting from USA, UK, and Canada. According to the company, this reach demonstrates the global potential of loyalty programs. With early interest from pharmaceutical organizations, retailers, sports betting, and a growing amount of B2B and B2C opportunities emerging, early merchant interest has been considerable. Goals in the future include growing adoption further in brick and mortar stores.

With an estimated worth of the current US loyalty-rewards industry at $65Bn and with projections out to 2020 see this building to $100Bn, opportunity in the space remains immense.

“Currently, the points or ‘currency’ for these programs (such as air miles or loyalty points) are locked up in individual silos per store or consortia, while overhead costs remain from tracking, producing, and managing the plastic card accounts and internal databases,” Mr. Wilson remarked.

Incent is helping to prove that Blockchain technology indeed does lower costs and put forth a more appealing proposition for both retailers and customers looking to interface with cryptocurrency, for a cause we can all relate to.

The Incent token will have a finite supply. Its value at the point of sale will be determined by the open market. By incorporating such a program, merchants can elect to allow this value to be exchanged and spent outside of their walled garden. Cross-partnerships between merchants will enable for promotions and sales or usage of coupons to occur directly within the application. Moreover, customers will be able to cash out at any store through wireless technology built into their mobile handset.

Built upon the Waves, a robust blockchain platform, Incent will provide a friendly user experience for both merchants and customers while using the distributed network for infrastructural purposes. Incent already had a connection with the Waves team, and trusted Waves’ technology stack to help them realize a sound, background-operating blockchain backend. Waves’ Proof-of-Stake (POS) blockchain enables for increased scalability and speed.

Waves’ gateways in and out of fiat and options to incorporate trading for newly minted ICOs will allow the value of Incent to open up worldwide. As APIs for Incent develop, plugins will help the concept scale even further. By providing statistics and data to merchants, blockchains technology is being utilized in a new way to unleash value while improving a merchant’s brand and customer base.

What are your thoughts on the potential for use of loyalty points on blockchain technology? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

On Thursday morning, Datcroft Games announced a partnership with GameCredits to bring secure and seamless use of in-game cryptocurrency to a vast community of gamers and developers using natively-developed, back-end blockchain technology.

Founded in 2016, GameCredits enables game developers to use the “GAME” token securely for MMORPGs and other games. The first roll-out is within the popular game Fragoria, which already has a user base of 8 million.

Gamers either buy or win GAME and leverage them for in-game purchases, use in other games, immediate cash outs, or as an investment. Developers can also benefit through earning rewards when a popular game is created, or by contributing to the code base, with no cap in rewards potential.

Cryptocurrency Takes to Gaming With GameCredits

Jon Comer, CMO of GameCredits, spoke to his excitement about the partnership:

“GameCredits Inc. is extremely excited to bring in the team from Datcroft. More than just a business partnership, this is a collaboration of development talents that now number close to 100 people working on the our new payment solution. Datcroft’s expertise and reputation in the gaming industry will give us the leverage needed to bring gamecredits to the mass gaming market.”

Through lower overhead costs brought forth through blockchain technology, purchasing items in-game is additionally enabled. Traditionally, GameCredits said, costs were too high to incorporate micropayments or complex in-game purchases into games without crossing problems of centralization and overhead fees.

Similar to a Ethereum gas, GAME tokens can trade directly inside their own wallets for USD, euro and bitcoin, or traded on digital exchanges.

The Value of In-Game Tokens

Loyal users win GAME and spend them across different games while cashing out or sending to exchanges for trade. The stands to offer incentives for developers too, with Datcroft reporting that their developer community now has access to a larger repository of tools to work with, particularly regarding techniques to acquire and trade scarce digital assets.

The cryptocurrency’s integration into popular games reportedly allows users to have larger deposit limits than traditional payment methods could enable. With increased revenue sharing to developers with quicker payouts, GAME makes a case for developers to contribute to the ecosystem, and can be cashed out into whatever currency one desires.

GameCredits’ advertised transparency and advanced fraud protection provides benefits for gamers as well. Sergey Sholom, CEO Datcroft Games Ltd., remarked how GameCredits and cryptocurrency give users of games on Datcroft new possibilities when gaming.

“Gamers will have the ability to make larger deposits and the ability to earn incentive discounts for purchasing in game items with gamecredits,” Sholom said. “Gamers typically have limited deposit options depending on where they live and cryptocurrency is something that is borderless.”

What are your thoughts about the future of cryptocurrency in gaming? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Bitcoin wallet and security solutions provider Airbitz recently announced a partnership with WINGS to integrate Airbitz’s Edge Security login to decentralize private key security and help make DAOs accessible to a wider development community.

Airbitz and WINGS Partner to Secure the New DAO

Through the partnership, WINGS will implement sound processes for private key management, in turn making DAO participant actions more frictionless and overall increasingly secure.

Airbitz’s blockchain-inspired, zero-knowledge data security solution enables end-users to securely access a multi-blockchain environment with a single sign-on experience. As a result, users retain their ability to manage their own private keys and authentication, without trusting or interfacing with third party providers. Since its release, developers have been able to use this open-source Edge Security SDK for their decentralized applications.

“WINGS, much like Airbitz, is committed to delivering a user-friendly experience for people interested in using blockchain assets in their applications,” said Airbitz CEO Paul Puey.

“Our partnership with WINGS will make interacting with the next generation of DAOs a seamless and accessible experience. We’re proud to add WINGS to the growing list of premier blockchain apps powered by Airbitz Edge Security.”

DAOs are the closest realization to an automated organizational structure yet, bridging new decentralization and investment technologies to enable for expanded, internationally-focused business opportunities. WINGS combines the DAO concept with decision-making using decentralized forecast markets, while a front-end UI gives customers access to these advanced solutions through a smart phone. With the WINGS project, investors know that DAO technology and prediction markets give proposed projects sound infrastructure upon which to flourish.

“We’re excited to partner with Airbitz and offer this to the WINGS DAO community,”said Boris Povod, WINGS Core Developer. “Airbitz lets people easily interact with DAOs using stored encrypted private keys, and anyone can login simply with a username/password.”

Additionally, Airbitz recently announced equity in the company can be purchased via Wefunder.com for non-accredited investors, and on BnkToTheFuture for accredited investors. To date, Airbitz has raised over $440,000 from more than 200 different investors.

What do you think about the recent partnership between AirBitz and WINGS? What does a partnership like this mean for the future of DAOs? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Expanse Wants to Take Voting to the Blockchain

According to a press release, this new project will provide voting services secured by an immutable blockchain. By virtue of the blockchain technology, said the Expanse team, their voting protocol will store voting data forever in a tamper-proof manner that is accessible across the globe.

This platform reportedly makes voting easier, while making it harder to get away with voter fraud.

As stated in the press release: “If anyone were to cheat, that cheat would also be recorded on the blockchain to ferret out later,” suggesting that fraudulent voters would have no way to conceal their crimes.

If the voting system functions as advertised, it would bring a significant overhaul to the current voting mechanism in most developed, democratic countries, which have been the subject of criticism as of late — especially in the U.S.

“The current voting systems people use are archaic and have absurdities like ‘hanging chads,’ with people counting and recounting.” said Expanse co-founder and lead developer Christopher Franko.

“The [election] results continually come into question, and all indications are that the results of this year’s U.S. presidential election will be particularly dubious.”

Keeping the 2016 presidential election in mind, Franko speculated that the U.S.’ current political situation provides an opportunity to tout the benefits of blockchain-based voting.

“Election night is coming soon for the U.S.,” he said, “so now is a great time to talk about the advantages of voting using the Expanse blockchain.”

Developers have released a demo version of the voting platform so people can get a feel for how blockchain-based voting might work in a real-world implementation. As development continues and the service becomes more functional, the Expanse team plans to add an identity system to make real voting scenarios using the technology more plausible.

What do you think about the Expanse project? Let us know in the comments below.

Gamerholic Presents Monetized Social Media for Gamers

Utilizing a Reddit and Steemit-inspired voting system, posts on the platform earn “Respeck.” The more Respeck a post earns, the more money it receives.

Additionally, users who give their Respeck to posts earn a portion of the rewards. Funds for these content rewards come from a percentage of the platform’s service fees, which differs from the Steemit model of using a percentage of the actual token’s market cap for rewards.

According to Anari Sengbe, Gamerholic’s founder, Gamerholic coin is the only currency used on the platform, with all payouts made in the coin.

The monetary rewards go to a platform-based hot wallet, cold wallet and a “main wallet,” from which Gamerholic coins can be sent to an exchange for conversion into bitcoin or another currency.

Sengbe said that the main wallet can be emptied once a day, while the cold wallet can only be emptied incrementally over the course of 8 weeks.

Similar to Steem Power, users on this gaming-centric platform can amass a “Gamerholic Power Level,” (GPL) which amplifies the amount of rewards users earn for getting Respeck on their posts. The platform determines a user’s GPL by the amount content they have posted and voted on, providing an incentive for regular participation.

However, Sengbe will give users a one-time chance to boost their GPL for a price. “This is our way of raising funds,” he said, “since it’s too late to sell tokens.”

The Gamerholic founder imagines that several interesting things will come from this gamer-oriented social media format.

As an example, Sengbe said that users could use the platform to organize gaming tournaments. As a post for a tournament gets Respeck — thereby earning money — the prize pot for the tournament grows.

The Rise of Blockchain Gaming Platforms

Sengbe founded Gamerholic in 2014 after discovering bitcoin and its irreversible transactions. In creating the company and its branded cryptocurrency, Sengbe wanted to provide a place where people could place bets on online gaming matches without worrying about credit card fraud or chargebacks.

Since then, cryptocurrency and blockchain-based gaming platforms have exploded in popularity. FirstBlood.io, an Ethereum-based matchmaking platform geared towards eSports competitors, raised $5.5 million USD within minutes, shutting down its ICO on the first day.

Meanwhile, Sengbe continues to work on the Gamerholic brand, seemingly unfazed by the stiff competition. In the weeks since FirstBlood’s massive ICO, Sengbe has launched the social implementation of the Gamerholic platform, as well as a mobile application that lets users discover games and apps that accept Gamerholic coin.

“We are the first,” Sengbe said when asked if his social media platform would give him an edge over his competitors. “I’ve had development time.”

“We’ve been around two years, the community should be excited about this direction of social and gaming for crypto.”

What do you think about this new gaming-centric social media platform? Let us know in the comments below.